Budget director on year-to-date, April revenues: some good, some not-so-good

The state budget director says April’s revenue numbers are up …. some more than others.

Director Linda Luebbering says she sees positive signs of growth, especially in sales tax collections, which shows people are more confident in the economy and are starting to spend money.

However, she says the cautionary tale is in looking at state income tax collections, which are up only 1.5 percent. She says that’s a slow pace.

Net general revenue collections for April increased by 6.9 percentcompared to last April.

Luebbering says fiscal year-to-date net general revenue collections increased 3.1 percent compared to 2011, from $5.81 billion last year to $5.99 billion this year. Net general revenue collections for April 2012 increased by 6.9 percent compared to those for April 2011, from $872.9 million to $933.4 million.

GROSS COLLECTIONS BY TAX TYPE

Individual income tax collections

· Increased 2.8 percent for the year, from $4.74 billion last year to $4.87 billion this year.

· Increased 1.5 percent for the month.

Sales and use tax collections

· Increased 3.8 percent for the year from $1.47 billion last year to $1.52 billion this year.

· Increased 3.2 percent for the month.

Corporate income and corporate franchise tax collections

· Decreased 6.3 percent for the year, from $421.5 million last year to $394.9 million this year.

· Increased 1.8 percent for the month.

All other collections

· Decreased 20.0 percent for the year, from $372.9 million last year to $298.3 million this year.

· Decreased 18.0 percent for the month.

Refunds

· Decreased 7.8 percent for the year, from $1.19 billion last year to $1.10 billion this year.

· Decreased 20.8 percent for the month.

Note: The General Revenue Fund repaid $325 million to the Budget Reserve Fund, which is the total amount owed.